new school

I am so excited for Calvin to start as his new school Tuesday morning. We need tomorrow to finish making arrangements and the school needs to be sure they are set up with enough staff in the right places to be ready for him. I am really hoping that this will be a good change for him. I feel like I'm having a little deja vu saying this because it was just a few months ago that we were making a school change and to be honest it was kind of disastrous.

We had our IEP meeting last friday to discuss Calvin's annual goals. He only met one of his 15 or so goals. By any measurable standard he has had a terrible year. Any doubt I had that he needed new placement was washed away as we reviewed his goals for the year and saw that he is not making any progress on them. His teacher kept saying stuff like, "if he were more cooperative . . . " or "We could have met this goal if he had not refused to work" or "I was not able to complete this evaluation because he was not compliant." I so wished I could have just said "STOP!!! It is obvious he is failing here! Let's just move on and discuss placement!" But, it was not my first miserable hour in an IEP meeting so I just bucked up and moved forward.

Calvin really needs a place to teach him HOW to respond to, deal with and meet challenges that he faces daily. I am hoping that his new school will do this. That is what they claim they do well. Looking back I see that the special education class he had been attending at Painted Rock was more of a place where bad behavior was tolerated rather than a place to learn how to rise above the bad behavior.

Dave and I still have the fear that he will spend a few months here and be kicked out but the school personnel assure us that they are NOT AT ALL worried. They have seen Calvin's file, they know what they are getting and they said they have seen much worse. They also say they LOVE to get kids so young! They often get older kids - in the teens - and they are much harder to work with than the young ones like Calvin. They are completely confident that they can help him. He was accepted at 4 different schools and all 4 of those schools said the same thing.

I also think it is great timing to start a new school. We have just finished a nice spring break week. We didn't do too much or go too far from home, but we did enjoy a few fun family activities and Calvin had time to rest and rejuvenate and be ready to go! He got a new backpack and some new shoes (he needed both desperately), so that he is ready for a fresh start! I am glad that he is also excited to go to this school. Even though he can't articulate it, I know he also feels hope and excitement for his future!